The Chronicles Of Thamon Box Set: The Chronicles of Thamon

By Beca Lewis

The Chronicles of Thamon is a spellbinding clean fantasy series. If you like determined heroines, character-driven action, and magical intrigue, then you'll love Beca Lewis's three part gripping tale found in this box set.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Perception Publishing
• Release date: Aug 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201820213

Beca Lewis

BECA LEWIS always wanted to be a writer, but there were a few pit stops along the way. She has been a dancer, teacher, stockbroker, financial planner, club dancer (read this any way you wish), waitress, web designer, headhunter (the civilized kind), and a diamond broker to just name a few. All this while trying to be a decent mother to three kids, a step-mother to five more, and a grandmother to the five, almost grown, best-looking grandchildren in the world. All these experiences are the perfect fodder for book writing! Beca’s non-fiction Shift Series covers the system she developed and has coached for over twenty-five years. At this point, she is going to claim there is no time, so she doesn’t have to think about age. She’ll show you why you don’t have to either in this practical and inspirational series. Beca’s fiction explores stories around the concepts of other dimensions, love that transcends time and space, and where good always triumphs over evil. The best part of writing? Being an introvert on purpose, living in imagination, and then sharing it all with readers and friends.

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Banished Copyright © 2019 Beca Lewis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Published by:

Perception Publishing

This book is a work of fiction. All characters in this book are fictional. However, as a writer, I have, of course, made some of the book’s characters composites of people I have met or known.

Banished Prologue

A sea of bodies swayed in time to the words that flowed over them. Words that made them forget about their daily lives, if only for a moment. Each word was carefully chosen as if it was a note in a symphony. Each word designed to sway hearts, minds, and ultimately control lives.

The crowd no longer cared about, or had forgotten, the meaning of the words. They were lost in the feelings. Emotions moved through them, first building them up and then letting them down in perfect timing.

They were one organism with one goal, one intent, one ruler, one God. They had no thoughts of their own. They were servants to their new master, and joy filled their hearts because they were a chosen people.

The Preacher was pleased. His plans were working. Years of learning how to manipulate emotions in a crowd were paying off. It was almost effortless now. He was a master at playing the audience with the rhythm and pitch and sound of words as they flowed like honey from his mouth. Or hit like bullets when he wanted them to. Then he would comfort the people, and assure them that he knew what they wanted, what they needed, and he could give it to them.

Sometimes it wasn’t so easy. The Preacher would lose his focus for a moment, and project forward into where he knew it would all lead. But it was his focus that was playing the crowd, and the moment he lost it, they would be bewildered until he returned to lead them.

What he said was far less important than how he said it. Standing tall on the platform set in the middle of the Market, he was a beam of dark light. His face hidden inside the cowl of the black cloak he wore, no one in the crowd could have said what he looked like.

But they were always sure when he was near. They knew what he felt like. They knew what he stood for. They knew what he could do, and they loved him for that power. They knew that if they followed him and what he preached, they would be happy forever.

Behind the Preacher stood seven dark columns of men, their faces also hidden so that they too remained anonymous. However, who they were was not a secret. They were the Kai-Via, the Seven. The enforcers.

The Seven scanned the crowd, looking for those who were not swaying in response to the words—looking for the outsiders,the Mages, the ones who hadn’t yet fallen in love with the message.

The Kai-Via’s role as enforcers wasn’t needed as much anymore. The crowds had been tamed. Even this crowd. And when they were finished here, the one true religion would have taken over the planet of Thamon.

Everyone who hadn’t succumbed to the power of the Preacher’s words was being eliminated. They had been banished. Forever.

However, the head of the Kai-Via watched as the Preacher used his words to reinforce and sustain what they had already done, and wondered whose side the Preacher was on. He would be watching.

As the Preacher spoke, the crowd bowed their heads, and fell to their knees in gratitude because everything they wanted was theirs, as long as they followed the God, Aaron.

The wind whipped through the crowd, blowing shawls and cloaks into the air like flags. Many of the converted wore black robes like the Kai-Via, the Seven, but their robes didn’t have hoods. There was no hiding for them. Each face registered in the minds of the seven men scanning the crowd. Looking for those who were too alert. Too interested in things other than the speaker and the words that he spoke.

A sea of black robes was a powerful sight to see, and the Preacher and the Kai-Via reveled in the knowledge that this crowd was theirs as were the thousands of crowds across Thamon. Each crowd full of the young, the old, men, and women, all gathered as one, worshipers of the one God that ruled them all.

The Preacher was the mouthpiece of that one God. He delivered the message. The Preacher gathered them all into the emotions of oneness, togetherness, and sameness. And as his words ebbed and flowed, the crowd roared in approval.

For them, magic was dead. Aaron was the ruler. They were his subjects, and for them life was now glorious. What they had before was gone. All their worries were replaced with certainty. All they had to do was follow their new religion of Aaron-Lem, and all would be well.

Anyone who had resisted the Aaron-Lem doctrines had been killed or rounded up and placed in prisons where everything they ever believed was sucked out of them, and replaced with the laws of the one true religion. Or they had died in protest.

The time of Aaron’s rule was upon them, and they thought they were happy.

At the back of the crowd stood a man and a woman. There was nothing different about them. Their faces registered the same joyful emotions. They swayed in time to the words. They bowed their heads along with everyone else.

But hidden in the folds of their black robes, their fingers touched. They knew something that the Preacher and the Seven did not know, or at least did not want to believe.

Magic was not dead. Aaron was not their God. And they were not alone.

One

Meg stole a look over her shoulder, checking to see if anyone had followed her. The need to find shelter before nightfall was becoming more and more imperative. Night on this planet was doing something to her, something she couldn’t control.

Time was running out. Thamon’s second sun, Trin, was setting, and the night was chasing at her heels. She needed to find the building she was looking for soon while Etar, Thamon’s first sun, still gave her enough light to see.

As Meg ran through the shadows, she told herself that she had to stop worrying. She would get to the building in time, and she would be safe for the night.

However, constantly looking over her shoulder was slowing her down, and she felt like an idiot for being so paranoid. But the habit of being afraid was hard to shake.

Stop it, Meg said to the voice in her head that kept telling her she was in danger, not only from the present but from her past. Someone might find her.

But that was impossible. No one knew where she had gone, and even if they did, they would never find her. Besides, even if they were looking right at her, they wouldn’t know who she was. Because she could be anyone, or anything, any time she wanted to—most of the time.

But that was a secret, and a problem she was going to keep to herself until she could find others like her. Or at least someone that she could trust. In the meantime, she had no intention of shapeshifting unless she had to. It was too dangerous. Because she had made a massive mistake, and there was no one to blame for it but herself.

So, for now, she made herself look like any other inhabitant of the city of Woald. If anyone were paying attention to her, she would be a nondescript woman wearing the standard clothes of the people living on the Islands. Which meant she needed to slow down and look like them, not like someone trying to hide.

Breathe, she told herself. She had been in worse scrapes than this. Well, maybe not.

What had happened was not what she had planned. Running away from home was meant to be an escape to where she could be free. But she had moved too quickly without thinking things through. Not that unusual for her, but back home someone always helped her when she made rash decisions and stupid mistakes. However, when she overheard her parents discuss their plans to move her someplace she wouldn’t be so dangerous to others and herself, she panicked.

There was no way she was going to conform and become a good girl or good shapeshifter. Getting into trouble was too much fun. So that night, while they slept, she ran away. It was surprisingly easy. When you can turn yourself into anything, there is nowhere you can’t go and nothing you can’t do—if you’re careful.

And she had learned to be careful. At least about that. What she wasn’t careful about was where she was going. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out that she had moved too quickly.

By the end of the first week on her own, she had discovered her mistake, but it was too late to do anything about it. Thamon was her new home, and she would have to find a way to like it.

She could have chosen to go to another dimension on Gaia, but instead, she decided to leave the planet altogether. It was a big universe, and she wanted to explore. The only place she didn’t want to go was where her parents were planning to take her, so instead, she talked one of the portal makers into sending her to someplace else. Well, she didn’t talk him into it, she scared him into it by threatening to tell a secret she knew about him.

He had told her he would send her to the perfect place for shapeshifters like her. She believed him. To be fair, he was telling the truth. Because he probably wanted her to go someplace where they controlled people like her, and to a place that she could never leave. She had thought he meant it would be a place where she could be free. What he meant was it was a place where others would be free of people like her. What he had done was banish her to a place that hated people like her.

She supposed she shouldn’t have threatened the portal maker. The sad part was, she didn’t know a secret about him, but then, he didn’t know that.

At first, Meg thought she had arrived in paradise. Although it was only two islands connected with a land bridge, it was beautiful, and much like home with meadows and forests. What made it different were the two suns, Etar and Trin.

Meg spent her first days celebrating her newfound status as a free woman on a beautiful planet. There was no one to tell her what to do. She was independent for the first time in her life. Because she could look like anyone, she fit in where ever she went. Life was easy. She stole food and supplies or sweet-talked the unsuspecting into giving her what she needed or wanted.

And she listened. It was what she began to hear that changed everything. She discovered the reason why the portal maker had sent her here. She could be relatively free, but only if no one suspected what she was. So far, she had been lucky, and she was going to keep it that way.

Trying to keep herself from looking afraid because that would give her away, Meg turned the last corner and found the building she had seen earlier in the day. It looked deserted, a place to settle in and decide what to do.

She couldn’t let herself wish she had never run away. Or think about the fact that she would have been better off staying with her parents and letting them take her where they had planned. It was too late to feel sorry for herself. There was no way to go home. Thamon was her home now, and she was going to make the best of it.

There had to be others like her. She would find them before the wrong people found her. Because what the rulers of Thamon had in mind for people like her didn’t sound like anything she wanted to experience. Luckily, they didn’t know about her, and she was going to keep it that way.

Two

At the first sign of dawn, the problem Meg experienced at night slipped away, and she felt safe enough to leave the building in search of food and information. The Market was Meg’s first stop each morning.

As soon as the faintest beam of light streaked through the sky from Thamon’s first sun, farmers and craftspeople would roll their carts into the Market to set up their booths and stalls. One minute the Market was empty, and the next it would be filled with multiple colorful mini-stores and booths selling almost anything the people of the Islands might want.

All of this set up took place in Etar’s pale blue light. Even though it was one of Thamon’s suns, Etar was far enough away to be not much brighter than the reflected light of the moon on Meg’s home planet Gaia. To Meg, it made the mornings on Thamon as magical as the twilight that she had loved at home.

The first booth that Meg went to every morning served her new favorite drink. It tasted like coffee, but better. Not quite as bitter, but not sweet either. Because it was made from a bean that looked like a coffee bean from back home, Meg wondered if they were related.

The young man working the booth always filled her cup to the brim and gave her at least two slices of the delicious bread that they sold there. Meg never paid, and he never noticed. If he had, he wouldn’t have minded.

Charming people into giving her what she wanted was so easy for Meg, the fun of it had faded long ago. But she didn’t have any money, and she was not prepared to work at a job, so Meg felt that charming or stealing what she needed was her only option.

To get her free morning meal, all she had to do was make herself look a little more like the kind of woman the young man favored. Just enough to catch his eye, but not enough to be too visible to the rest of the people at the Market.

It had taken her only one quick peek inside of his mind to know what he liked. She had stayed inside his head only long enough to get the information she needed. Unless she had to, she never lingered inside anyone’s mind.

Part of it was because Meg tried not to do more magic or manipulation than was necessary to get what she wanted or needed. But there was another reason for her short stays. She had discovered that most minds were so full of junk and bits of nonsense, it felt like stepping into a pile of trash.

However, in spite of not feeling any guilt for the way she got what she wanted, Meg was grateful for what she received. In return, she tried to leave most people feeling better about themselves as a thank you.

Meg smiled at the young man as he passed her the food and drink, and decided what he needed was a companion. If she ran across his match, she promised herself she would introduce them to each other.

As Meg sat at a small table at the edge of the Market enjoying her breakfast, she told herself that it was probably a mistake going to his cart every morning. But she needed something that felt familiar with all the uncertainty of this new world. Meg stayed watching the crowd for a while, but by the time Trin had risen above the horizon, she had slipped away into the crowd of people who had arrived to shop in the Market.

As she walked, she continually tweaked her look enough to disappear, but being careful never to change so much it would be noticeable. It was a delicate balance, and she was always on the lookout for others doing the same thing.

There have to be more people like me, Meg thought. The trouble was, they could be anywhere, or anything. Well, anything that moved. Meg couldn’t turn herself into a tree, or stone. But the lizard sunning himself on the rock could be someone like her. Unlikely though. She had never met another shapeshifter who could be almost anything. Even her parents didn’t have the range that she did, and her sister, Suzanne, could only turn into a dragon. A funny-looking one at that, but still a dragon.

What Meg wanted to do first was find others like herself. She hoped to learn more about what the members of Kai-Via had in mind for Mages and shapeshifters, and how to avoid their detection. All she had learned so far was that it was dangerous to be a Mage or shapeshifter in Thamon. But why? And how dangerous? She decided that she might find out more answers today because the Preacher was arriving that afternoon to speak at a gathering at the Market. Everyone was excited. They had heard that he was mesmerizing.

Meg wasn’t sure that was a good quality, even though she used it to her own advantage all the time.

Just a moment before, she had snitched a new shawl off a cart owned by an old woman by simply manipulating what the woman was seeing. Meg had been admiring the shawl for days, and finally, she couldn’t resist. But seconds later, reason had kicked in, and a newly found caution made her put it back. It was such a beautiful shawl someone might recognize it, and then she would be in trouble.

Besides, she had to admit she had felt sorry for the woman. If she were going to steal, it would have to be from someone who could afford it or deserved it. And of course, too many things going missing would make the spies of the Kai-Via suspicious. That was the last thing she needed.

Instead, she wrapped her plain gray cloak around her and strolled through the Market, listening, and observing, passing the time until the Preacher arrived.

What Meg didn’t notice was someone else was doing the same thing, but their focus was on her.

Three

Wren reluctantly turned away from watching the woman and headed to the daily morning meeting. Roar and Ruth were probably already there waiting for her. If she were too late, they would start to panic, thinking something might have happened to her, and she didn’t want them to go through that.

She knew how that felt. Disappearances happened almost every day. Friends vanishing without a trace. So even though their little group made sure that they held their meetings in one of the deserted homes located on Hetale, Lopel’s sister island, they had become even more cautious. They adjusted their appearances as needed, just in case someone was watching. As watchers themselves, they were all too aware of how easy it was to observe and not be seen.

Wren and her friends had learned that there was no such thing as being overly cautious. More than one member of their group had disappeared since they started holding meetings.

It was possible that someone had tracked them to a meeting, and had told the Kai-Via about them. Of course, multiple other things could have happened, but now, to be safe, every few days they moved to a new meeting place.

This morning they were in their latest location, a deserted home just on the outskirts of the town of Tiwa. They didn’t break in. The houses were already open. In fact, these homes looked as if their owners would return at any moment. Nothing was broken or taken. Only the occupants were gone, almost as if they had vanished into thin air.

So far, Wren’s group had met in many deserted homes. There was never a shortage, and there were more places for them to choose from every day. But the fact that people were disappearing was something never discussed in public. Wren knew that it was not because no one cared. It was because they had been told not to notice. And if for some reason they did notice, everyone was too afraid to say anything.

The people of the Islands were not accustomed to being afraid. For centuries they had lived in an isolated peace. Now the Kai-Via had come to the Islands and changed everything.

On three sides of Lopel and its sister island Hetale, towering white cliffs led down to the sea. From the cliffs, each Island sloped gently down to the Arrow, the land bridge that connected the two islands.

During big storms that stretch of land would be underwater, but most of the time it remained an open passageway. The locals called it the Arrow because it was as straight as an arrow, and looked as if it was pointing at each Island. It also provided easy access to the beaches.

For the non-magical inhabitants of Lopel, the cliffs were impossible to navigate, but there were beautiful white sand beaches below them.

So Mages had long ago carved a long series of steps into the sides of cliffs. Now the beaches below the cliffs were accessible to everyone alike, magical or not, if you didn’t mind climbing up and down stairs. Otherwise, the Arrow was the easier route.

Because the Arrow connected Lopel and Hetale, during the warm months, a local tradition was to sit on the beach on Hetale in the morning and watch Etar rise in the east as Trin moved towards it, having risen in the west. For the people of Lopel and Hetale, their favorite time to watch the suns was when they passed each other directly overhead.

Until the Kai-Via arrived, everyone would stop and watch the passing hoping to catch sight of the blue flash that sometimes happened. If it did, it was considered a good omen. But that was magical thinking, and therefore now banned on all of Thamon.

There was constant travel between the two islands either by sea or by using the Arrow. The islanders traveled to visit relatives and friends but also to trade goods and services. During the warm months when storms were rare, the Market that Meg visited was located on the Arrow. It extended from one end of the Arrow to the other, often spilling over onto the Arrow’s narrow beaches where fishermen would bring in their daily catch.

Because of the easy access to each other, there were many blended families on both islands. But other than that they were isolated from the rest of Thamon, and they liked it that way.

Sometimes a ship would arrive carrying goods from other parts of Thamon, and everyone would flock to the docks to see what the ships had brought. They asked about the rest of Thamon, but unless the news affected trade, there was little that worried the people of Lopel and Hetale.

When the Kai-Via and the Preacher arrived on the island of Hetale, everything had changed. It wasn’t noticeable at first.

The people of Lopel and Hetale were tolerant and supportive of all beliefs, so when the Kai-Via talked about the religion that they represented, no one questioned it. They simply listened and either agreed or disagreed. There was no judgment placed on what they heard.

The men who called themselves the Kai-Via built a Temple on Hetale, and left it open for anyone to visit. They held daily services, and people started attending out of curiosity. The rumor spread that the Preacher was amazing to listen to, and that they always felt happy after the services.

Soon the doctrine of Aaron-Lem started finding its way into conversations between the people of both islands, and those conversations began to be heated ones. When more and more people from Hetale began to miss the daily rising and crossings of the suns, the people on Lopel started to worry.

To those that were paying attention, the number of people converting to what was preached in the Temple was shocking. Especially considering how quickly the lives of people on both Islands had changed. To Wren’s group and others like her, not for the better.

It turned out they were right to worry. The people who were disappearing were not a random mix of people. They were people like them—those with magical skills, the Mages and shapeshifters.

As Wren neared the meeting place, she dropped down into the branches of a tree in the backyard, fluffed her feathers, and then, turning into a lizard, climbed down the tree and under the door of the house. It was only when she was sure that it was safe, that she transformed back into the woman who had been watching Meg.

Four

The man known as the Preacher walked down to the Arrow to watch Etar rise from the east and turn the land and the seas that surrounded the Islands a light blue. It was his favorite time of day. It always had been, even back home in Oreth. Life had been so easy then. No one expected anything of him. He was like all the boys in his village. They would play until Trin rose in the west. That meant it was time to return home to do their chores before heading to school, or the farm, depending on what time of year it was.

A few rocks jutted out of the sand, providing material for someone to turn them into benches. Ibris didn’t want to think about the fact that it was probably a magical gift that had enabled someone to make a place for him to sit. He filed it away into the part of his brain that couldn’t make sense of the path he had chosen.

Instead, he sat with an ease that belied the unease that he felt. The stone bench on the beach was his favorite spot on Hetale. From there he could watch the ever-changing sea and all the comings and goings on the Arrow. He watched as the Market filled up with vendors preparing to sell their wares as they did every day during the warm months.

Back home in Oreth, the Market was held only at the end of the week when everyone from the surrounding countryside would gather in the town’s square. Its intended purpose was to sell goods and services, but everyone knew that the conversations that took place were why it was such a favorite thing to do.

During the cold months, Ibris thought he would go crazy waiting for the days when he would have more than his immediate family to talk to. Inside their home waiting for the cold to be over, they would be warm and safe, but there were only so many books to read, or games to play around the large dining room table before he would slowly go crazy. He needed people. He loved watching the people of his village interacting with each other.

Now he watched the Market on the Islands instead of the people of his village. It was his habit of observation that told him that although on the surface it appeared as if nothing had changed at the Market, he knew that his preaching was having an effect.

This made him both proud and sad. Proud that he was able to do what was asked of him, sad because he missed the easy babble of the Market that had reminded him of home. Yes, there were still conversations going on. But they were contained. The ability to say whatever they wanted to say without worry had disappeared. These people knew there were consequences for not accepting Aaron-Lem as the one true religion.

In his sermons, Ibris told them that the consequences were all good. They were a blessed people chosen to learn the ways and rules of Aaron-Lem. Flowing with the one true God of Aaron-Lem, they would have more of everything that they wanted.

Except Ibris knew what the real consequences were, and he tried not to care. After all, he was the Preacher of the most elite of the Kai-Via. The Kai-Via were Aaron-Lem’s missionaries, trained by Stryker, Aaron’s right-hand man. And Ibis and this Kai-Via were considered the most powerful and effective of them all.

The Islands were not the first place Ibris had transformed in the name of Aaron-Lem. But they were the first ones where he had managed to convince Stryker that he could convert the people without bloodshed. And Stryker agreed that he could try.

However, if Ibris didn’t succeed, then it wouldn’t be the Kai-Via that the people would fear, it would be Aaron’s Warrior Monks waiting in the wings to be put to use. Ibris had seen what that looked like, and he never wanted to see it again. Stryker would say Ibris was going soft. It was not the way of Aaron-Lem. Therefore it could not be his way. They had to do whatever it took to convert the people and stop those that opposed them.

Stryker gave Ibris the warm season to accomplish his blood-free mission. Ibris prayed he could do it. He had seen enough death.

Shaking himself free of the thoughts of the past, Ibris reminded himself that he only had until Trin rose to observe the Market, and then he was expected back in the Temple to deliver his morning sermon.

He would also be preaching again in the Market later that day, which meant that he would be expected to manipulate minds twice today. He had to prepare for the fact that he would probably be sick that night, drained. Depending on how much work it took, he could also end up with a massive headache and nausea.

He needed all the sustenance he could get from the rising Etar. It had worked for him as a child, and he needed it to work for him as an adult. It bothered him that his thoughts always returned to childhood on days like this. It was dangerous.

Ibris had never dreamed of becoming the man who did Stryker’s bidding and preached a religion, any religion. He had never been interested in the gods. Instead, he had loved the farming life, following his father and brothers into the fields each morning during the warm months.

His sisters stayed home with his mother preparing the days’ meals and working in the gardens. Every night that they could, they would eat their evening meal outside during Thamon’s two sunsets. It was considered holy time. The time they would bow their heads and thank the God, Zuien, for giving them light and heat. That was all he knew about the gods. It had been enough.

These were dangerous thoughts for him to have, and he knew it. If Aaron-Lem, represented by Stryker, was as all-mighty as he claimed to be, he could read Ibris’ mind when he was unprotected and find his desire to return home. And if he did, he would punish him. So far, he had been lucky. Either his defenses were strong enough, or Stryker wasn’t looking. Ibris was reasonably sure it was because Stryker wasn’t looking, for now.

Besides, he couldn’t go back. Ever. His home and his family were gone. It was Stryker who had saved him from the same fate but doomed him to another, giving him this mission that he was not allowed to fail. Stryker would say that he had saved Ibris’ soul. Stryker had taught him the ways and means of using words, spoken, and unspoken, to bring people into the arms of Aaron-Lem.

Ibris sighed and watched the market fill. No one would know who he was because they had never seen his face. The only people who knew him were the other members of the Kai-Via, Aaron, and Stryker.

All the people knew of him was his voice and his words. If he had to speak now, he would alter his voice not to be recognized, and Ibris never used the power he had while revealing himself in public.

As he turned to go, Ibris thought he got a glimpse of someone he hadn’t seen before. But when he looked again, he didn’t see her. That was the problem. They could be anyone. And that was what he and the Kai-Via were here to stop.

Five

I saw that woman again today, Wren said. She didn’t need to tell Roar and Ruth who she meant. They had been taking turns watching her.

The newcomer had arrived in Woald a week before. No one knew where she had come from, but they suspected that it was not from Thamon because at first she had been so disoriented it was almost comical to watch. She was startled by everything— from the two suns to the way people dressed.

At first, the newcomer was not careful, probably because she had no idea the danger she was in. Not wanting her to be taken immediately by the Kai-Via, the three friends had staged a conversation just for her to hear.

They had strolled into the market, looking as if they were three men from the Island of Hetale. It didn’t take long to find her even though she had once again altered her appearance, which made them even more sure she was one of them.

She was sitting at a table eating lunch, staring at the food as if she had never seen anything like it before.

Wren, Ruth, and Roar bought food from a vendor and then sat at a table as close to her as they could. They had taken a chance doing what they did because someone else might be watching. But they spoke very quietly, hoping she was as observant as she needed to be if she was what they suspected.

They were rewarded for their efforts when they felt her attention turn to them. Either she was a spy for the Kai-Via or a stranger to Thamon.

Not entirely sure which one she was, they were careful with what they said. They talked about the people who were disappearing from Hetale. The three friends mentioned that it appeared that the ones who were missing were the Mages and shapeshifters. When Roar added that the shapeshifter community was disappearing the fastest, the woman turned her full attention to them. They had struck a nerve.

The three of them nodded their heads in agreement, and Ruth said the words that they hoped the woman would understand. Well, the shapeshifters could have disappeared like the Mages, or they could still be here since they could be anyone.

The woman jerked back as if in shock, and her drink spilled over her hand. As she wiped it off, the three friends got up from the table and went separate directions, disappearing as soon as they could into another form. As far as they knew they were the only three shapeshifters left on the Islands, unless their shapeshifter friends had found a way to disappear.

If that were true, they wished their friends would come back. There was no way they were going to stop the Kai-Via on their own. They needed help, which is why they were watching the newcomer so closely. If she was what she appeared to be, they needed her. It had been a week now. Perhaps it was time to test her.

She spends her nights in one of the deserted buildings on the outskirts of Woald. We could talk to her then, Roar suggested.

Is that safe? Ruth asked. First, if we have noticed her, it is possible that the Kai-Via have noticed her too, and are using her as bait to catch us.

It’s true, Wren answered. She could be bait. She might even be doing it on purpose. Although her confusion seems pretty real. Either way, it could be a trap.

Or it could be dangerous because she is dangerous, Ruth said. We haven’t seen what she can do. What if she turns against us before we have a chance to explain who we are?

Wren shot the answer right back. Oh, come on. We can get to her without being in danger. What have we become, a group of wimps? If we wait much longer, the Kai-Via will discover her for sure, and we’ll lose our chance. We have to move on this now.

A mumble of agreement went around the room. Wren was usually right, but that didn’t mean they always had to agree with her. They were a mixed bunch. No one would ever have thought the three of them were friends, let alone people who would put themselves at risk by trying to stop the Kai-Via.

They were very careful. They had rules. The first rule was that when they were alone together, they had to appear in their true form. There was more than one reason for that precaution. First, it was for their benefit. Since any of them could change into any moving being, there was a fear among shapeshifters like them that eventually they would not be able to return to their true selves. So having to shift back for meetings kept them in practice.

The other reason was for the groups’ protection. They needed to be sure that the person sitting across from them was their friend and not a shapeshifter who had taken on their form. Someone could, but it would be hard to maintain. Besides, they shared a secret that kept them positive that they were who they appeared to be when they met.

Even though Wren was the un-elected leader of the group, she was still a young woman. Roar was an older man who knew Wren’s story but had promised not to tell anyone. If and when it was necessary, Wren would do the telling, no one else.

Ruth, the third member, was an older woman who had lived on Hetale, but once she heard the Preacher she knew what it would lead to and went looking for Roar and Wren before the Kai-Via came looking for her. She, too, yielded to Wren’s leadership because Roar said they would be safe if they did.

Okay, tonight, Wren said. "Roar, you watch her just in case she doesn’t come to the building. Ruth and I will wait inside until she gets there or you come to tell us where she went.

A cat seems like a good choice, don’t you think? Roar said.

The other two laughed. Roar loved being cats. It was how he got his name. He had tried many times to be a lion but had never accomplished it. House cats were as far as he got.

Wren smiled to herself, thinking that Roar should have been called, Meow. All three of them laughed again at the thought. They took joy when and wherever they could.

Six

Ever since Meg heard the three men talking in the market, she had looked for them again. Something was off about the whole thing. She didn’t believe in coincidences. Like what happened with the portal maker. It wasn’t a coincidence that he sent her to Thamon. He sent her here on purpose because she mistreated him. Not just that one time, every time she used his services.

Only now, alone in a strange, and apparently dangerous place, did Meg begin to understand what her older sister kept trying to tell her while they were growing up. Meg could still hear her sister’s voice in her head. Suzanne would say over and over again that a gift didn’t make you superior; it made you more responsible. Meg hadn’t believed it then, and she still wasn’t sure she believed it now. But her feeling superior was the reason she had mistreated the portal maker, and look at how he got his revenge.

If she ever got back home, he would have some explaining to do. Meg didn’t think he was too worried about it. If she even survived Thamon, she would have to find a portal maker, if there was such a thing here, and they would have to know the exact coordinates of where she came from. Yes, pretty much impossible. So whether she liked it or not, she was now a resident of the planet Thamon, and at least for now, the city of Woald.

Then there were the three men. Not trying to hurt her, but trying to warn her. They didn’t just show up and start talking about something that would impact her if she wasn’t careful. That meant that somehow they had noticed her, and had an idea what she could do. She was lucky. It could have been someone else who saw her, someone who, from what the three men said, didn’t like magic.

She needed to be more careful and less noticeable. And she needed to find the three men. But she had no idea where to look. She was also acutely aware that she didn’t actually know how to act normal. What did normal people do? How did they manage to look like just one thing all the time? What was an ordinary life?

For a week now Meg had been studying the people who passed through the Market, wondering if any of them had magical skills. Where she came from everyone did, not that she had paid much attention to them. Because everyone’s gifts were different, and Meg considered some more important than others. To Meg, the ability to become anyone was the highest and best magical skill. Everything else was secondary. But right now, she would be happy to find just one person with the tiniest bit of magic.

Hours had gone by since her breakfast, and Meg was hungry again. She spotted a booth that had a long line in front of it and thought that must mean they had good food. At first, she stood in line like everyone else, trying to be patient as everyone took their turns stepping up to the window to order. It didn’t go well.

Within a few minutes, she was fidgeting with impatience, and people started to turn to look behind them to see who was jiggling the line. With a sigh, Meg stepped out of line and into the crowd. Slipping behind the food booth, she wrapped her gray cloak around her, squatted down behind a garbage can, and changed into a raven.

The raven walked behind the lines of trash cans, came out the other side, and took off into the air. It swooped around the Market and saw a table where one of the men who had been in the front of the line had just laid his newly purchased food. When he turned to see if his friend was following him, the raven landed on the table, snatched the food, and flew away.

It was all over within seconds. As Meg flew out of the marketplace, carrying her newly acquired lunch, she giggled to herself at how easy that had been. The idea that she needed to be careful, act normal, and not draw attention to herself, had been momentarily forgotten.

Watching from the top of one of the booths, Wren wanted to fly down and peck out one of the raven’s eyes. What an idiot. Didn’t that girl get the message? Was she worth saving when she was so careless with her own safety? If they rescued her, would it be worth it? If she was that stupid, she could get them all killed.

Wren flew after the raven, knowing that eventually it would have to turn back into its true form. No one could hold another form for too long, especially the shapeshifters who could be anyone. Wren thought it was probably that their bodies needed to recharge more often. She suspected that the girl would turn back to herself to eat her lunch because she thought no one was watching.

Which, again, was stupid. It was the middle of the day. The Preacher was coming to the marketplace in a few hours. His spies could be anywhere.

Wren followed the raven as it flew back to Lopel and into the woods that bordered the beaches. At least she is smart enough to hide when she changes back and forth, Wren thought to herself. Wren’s patience was rewarded when the raven put the food down on a stump and then transformed into a young woman. Now Wren had the information she might need in the future. She knew what the woman really looked like, not the slightly altered form she showed in public. Wren flew further into the woods before shifting back to being a young woman. She was always careful not to let everyone see how much older she was, even though she knew that Roar and Ruth had found out, and they didn’t seem to mind. Still, it was better to be safe.

Wren wondered if she would have to look older when she dealt with the newcomer. It was doubtful that she was used to following rules. But if the newcomer wanted to survive and work with them, she would have to. Otherwise, she would be on her own. And no one would make it on their own with the Kai-Via around.

Seven

Tarek stood in the meadow, enjoying the feel of the wind from the sea as it whipped his cloak behind him, making him look as if he was going to take off and fly. He lifted his face to the sun, enjoying the increasing warmth of Trin as it rose higher in the sky. Thamon’s first sun, Etar, was climbing too. It was almost time for the two of them to pass each other in the clear blue sky. It would be a good day to watch the crossing.

Etar didn’t give off warmth, it was too far away, and its light was only evident before Trin rose in the morning. But when the two suns passed each other, there were a few moments of something spectacular. The blended lights turned everything a slightly different color, including people. It was a color no one could describe, or reproduce, but everything would look radiant and fresh, if only for that moment.

It was Tarek’s favorite time of the day, and he always tried to be outside when it happened. Sometimes there would be a flash of blue at the exact moment of their crossing, and Tarek knew that the people of Thamon had always considered it a good omen for the day.

Or they did. Now that was considered a form of superstition, something banned by the one true religion of Aaron-Lem. Tarek was very familiar with the tenets of Aaron-Lem, and he hated every single one of them. They were easy to hate. And easy to know what Aaron-Lem stood for behind its facade of religion and worship. It was all about ultimate power for one man. Not a god, even though he considered himself to be one. Tarek also knew what happened to nations when they resisted Aaron-Lem.

Tarek was away on a trade ship when his home town was burned to the ground by Aaron-Lem’s followers. He returned home to nothing. His home, his family, and his friends were all gone. They had resisted the decree that Aaron was the one true God, and there was to be no more magic or superstitious nonsense lived or even spoken.

Tarek had stood in the middle of the burned town and screamed at that God until the captain of the ship found him and hustled him back to the boat. The captain had kept him sedated until they were safe in open waters. Then he allowed Tarek to stand on the deck and scream until he was exhausted. The rest of the men had stayed silent.

After seeing what had happened to Tarek’s homeland, they had quickly replenished the ship’s supplies and left, determined to stay as far away as possible from the upheaval that was taking place over all of Thamon.

But Tarek remained angry. If he allowed himself to, he could even now smell the fire and the leftover stench from the burned bodies that had been trapped in their homes and places of business. Tarek couldn’t allow himself to return to that memory for long because it drained him of all hope. And he needed that hope, along with his anger.

No matter what it cost him, Tarek was determined to find a way to stop what was happening on Thamon even though he was only one man.

His friends on the ship wanted to stay away, and he couldn’t blame them. But he couldn’t sit by and watch it happen. So when his ship landed on the shores of Lopel to replenish their supplies, he stayed behind. If there was one place left on the planet not yet entirely ruled by a God who wanted everything his way, he was going to fight to keep it free. And the Islands were that place.

It had been a month since he arrived, all the time staying out of sight while trying to gather all the information that he could about the Kai-Via’s methods.

Things appeared different here. Because, so far, it looked as if the Preacher was determined to convince the people through words, not violence, and Tarek was grateful for that fact. Otherwise, more people would have already died. Tarek knew that many were missing. But were they dead, or somewhere else? Did they leave on their own, or were they forced? These were questions he needed to answer, but he knew that they might remain a mystery for the time being.

The Kai-Via was already on the sister island of Hetale, trying to take it over. Lopel was still free enough that he might find a way to stop Aaron’s insatiable quest to rule everyone his way. Because Tarek was clear about what was going on.

The religion of Aaron-Lem was not real. Although the message appeared to be about faith, and holiness, it was not. Aaron and his followers had found a way to bend people’s minds and make them do what he wanted them to do. Aaron was willing to do whatever it took to be worshiped as the one true God. Anything.

Tarek was willing to do anything to stop him. But he needed help. Finding it had proved more difficult than he thought it would be. Lopel was sparsely populated. Large swaths of meadows and forests took over much of the island. The wind would sweep up and over the white cliffs twisting the limbs of trees in its path into beautiful sculptures, but most people preferred a more sheltered environment. So although there were farms outside the town of Woald, most people on Lopel chose to live within Woald’s shelter.

However, he believed that somewhere there were people not seduced by the Preacher’s words, and Tarek was determined to find them.

The blue light flashed, and Tarek whooped. It was a good omen. Aaron was afraid of magic because he knew it could defeat his words and his armies. Tarek had to find others who had that magic. He needed help, and it looked as if that help might be in Lopel.

Without giving himself away, he had been observing the wren that followed him. It was careful, staying high in the trees. But birds don’t usually move out of their own territories. This one had been tracking him for hours.

Perhaps it was time to show the little bird his true colors. If he was wrong and it was just a bird, so be it. But if he was right, he might have found an ally in his fight against Aaron-Lem.

Eight

Ibris took the letter handed to him by one of the followers that served Aaron-Lem. They were supposed to see to his needs. He found them annoying, always bowing and scraping. They didn’t fool him. They weren’t bowing and scraping because they thought he was someone worth bowing to. No, they were doing it out of fear.

He grunted to himself, thinking about fear. The people of Hetale hadn’t tasted fear. Maybe they should bow to him for keeping blood and destruction from their shores. Then they would know genuine fear. He knew it. He knew what fear felt like. It followed him.

Standing by the sea that morning, he had a moment of release from the pressures and fears that drove him daily. Later, after he had finished his first sermon, he had stepped into the private garden outside his room in the Temple, seeking more relief from what he had to do.

As he sat on the stone bench watching the trees sway in the sea breeze, the blue light flashed, and he hid his smile. His family believed in the omens, and he did too, but he could never let Stryker learn that. It wouldn’t matter to Stryker that he was the Preacher that used words better than anyone else on Thamon. Stryker would simply train someone else, and dispose of him.

The fact that his and the Kai-Via’s hooded black robes hid every detail of their bodies and most of their faces was intentional. It allowed them to circulate among the people and watch for unbelievers or rebels. However, there was another reason. They could be replaced if they disagreed with Aaron-Lem or Stryker’s methods.

It was close to a miracle that Stryker had given him a season to convert the people without bloodshed. Ibris had nightmares about the destruction they had left behind everywhere else. Why couldn’t they have left these Islands alone? What harm would it have done? The rest of Thamon had fallen to Aaron’s rule, how could just two small islands isolated far out to sea affect anything else going on?

Ibris mentally shook his head, being careful to never let on what he was thinking or feeling. He couldn’t let on that he knew why. He knew that Stryker had plans that Aaron didn’t know about.

Thanking the messenger for the letter, Ibris slipped it into the pocket of his robe and stepped back out into his garden. He knew it was from Stryker. It had his seal on it. Black wax, stamped with a coiled snake in the shape of an S. He would open it later because it probably wouldn’t be good news, and he needed to prepare for his talk at the market. Sitting in his garden, Ibris calmed his mind and ran through the words he was going to say.

Most of the words wouldn’t be heard. Instead, the words would seep underneath what the people expected to hear and slide into their minds. Slowly they would bend to his will, not knowing that was what they were doing. Instead of thinking for themselves, they would soon agree with everything he said.

He was doing them a favor. Every time he spoke to them, he was telling them to surrender. He was telling them to obey the laws and rules of Aaron-Lem. He was telling them that magic was evil and never to be practiced or spoken of. He led them down the dark tunnels of nightmares of what would happen if they practiced magic of any kind. All independent thought was forbidden. They could be happy, raise families, and have normal lives, as long as they followed Aaron, and only Aaron, as their God.

Ibris knew what would happen if they disobeyed, so he worked hard to control them. He wasn’t sure that he could handle more blood on his hands. This way was better. He controlled them. He wondered what would happen if Stryker understood that he did it for them, and not for Aaron.

No matter. Stryker would never find out. However, he worried that Dax, the head of the Seven, was beginning to wonder. Dax was a warrior. He wanted to fight. He had been the captain of one of the many armies that Aaron controlled. Troops that moved through countrysides like locusts obliterating everyone who didn’t conform.

Dax had been pulled off the front lines by Stryker and transferred to this group of Kai-Via. Ibris knew Dax rankled under this new assignment. Especially since Ibris had been permitted to use conversation instead of bloodshed to bring these remaining Islands into submission.

Ibris suspected that Dax had been placed on the Islands to keep him and the rest of Kai-Via in a constant state of fear. And as much as he tried to control that fear, it was always there, because Ibris could not use words to control Dax.

No matter how skilled he had become using words against others, he couldn’t get through to the Seven, especially Dax. He hadn’t even tried with Stryker.

All of them had learned how to shut their minds down to suggestions of all kinds against Aaron-Lem. But still, he should have been able to find an opening somewhere. However, so far he had been unsuccessful. Which meant he was going to have to outsmart them all before they discovered that in his heart he wasn’t one of them.

He could see with his own eyes that both Aaron and Stryker were just ordinary men, not gods. To Ibris, that was what made them so evil. They claimed to be Ordinary, and they hated anyone with magical skills, no matter how small. They especially hated the shapeshifters who could be anyone. They were not controllable, and that was terrifying to both Aaron and Stryker.

To be sure there were no Mages in his organization, Aaron tested everyone. Including the Kai-Via and Preachers.

Ibris had passed the test using every skill that he had. At the time he felt that he owed his life to Stryker. To please him, he had volunteered to serve in Aaron’s organization. Throughout the years he had risen in the ranks. Stryker trusted him. He was tested over and over again and proved his loyalty.

And now he was the most effective of Aaron’s Preachers, which made him a very powerful man in Aaron’s organization. Powerful enough to request a peaceful conversion for the Islands. But if he failed, Ibris knew there were worse people in Aaron’s organization than the armies and the Kai-Via.

If he and the people of Lopel and Hetale were to stay alive, he needed to convert the Islands before the warm months were over, and he would need every one of his skills to do it.

Nine

The Preacher’s talk was to be held in the center of the Market. The hope was that people from both islands would be there. Although all of their conversion focus was on Hetale, that was temporary. As soon as they reached a tipping point of conversions on Hetale, they would move on to Lopel. It would be easier because the people of Hetale would have started the process